Conesus Lake, NY 7/22/06

[TheBossT127]

Nothing more satisfying than catching a limit of tournament bass in a driving rainstorm! Only two good times to fish...when it's rainin' and when it isn't! This day started out like gangbusters. My boat cover shredded on the hour drive to the lake. When I launched I realized that my plug wasn't in, and even better, it was gone! So off comes my raingear as I wade in waist deep to put in a back up plug. By then, my raingear was wet on the inside, so I just stowed it and went on with the day like Santiago, ready to catch fish despite all the efforts to dampen my butt AND my enthusiasm.
My partner for the day and I motored only a short distance from the launch because I couldn't see due to the rain and fog, and I had never been on Conesus Lake before. I had done some map review the night before, and I found what looked like a decent spot across the lake from the launch. We worked around a point into a cove that was a little sheilded from the southeastern breeze, and into some thick weeds. It was here that the action started. Using a Texas-rigged Maniac Lures 4" salt stick in crawfish color, I was casting over the weeds and letting the bait settle into pockets. Lots of action here but little fish. We moved on down the weedline to a row of boat docks and I started pitching the salt stick along and in front of the docks. I busted 5 keeper fish in this area. My biggest fish was close to 4 lbs. I alternated between the crawfish and grape colors, but the bass didn't seem to mind. I had my limit by 11am. Unfortunately my bad breaks from earlier in the morning continued as my livewell wasn't working properly and 4 of my fish died. When I caught a kicker fish with about a half hour left in the tournament, the only fish still alive was the big one so I couldn't cull any. I lost a pound to dead fish penalties and finished in 8th place. Still beats a day of work though!